Encoding/Decoding Web Service: Service Consumer - Generating a proxy
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We know that the client communicates with the web service through the proxy. So how is this proxy created or generated? This takes place using the WSDL protocol. Referring back to the web service described in part one, we know that the asmx file in the Visual Studio IDE we created, is the URL of the web service. The WSDL, or the language that describes the web service, is simply obtained by appending ?WSDL to this URL. This resulting XML file describes the service in detail, and is usually very large. A sample of this [http://localhost/Test /Service1.asmx ?wsdl] is shown for the asmx file we created in part one here. For further details on WSDL please follow this link. This description lays out in detail the functions that are called and the protocols that carry the message.
Proxy class can be created using the command line executable wsdl.exe. It has a large number of switches to accommodate the various parameters, such as authentication information, connectivity information, URL, and so on. However, Visual Studio 2003 IDE has a visually appealing way of creating the proxy class. In this tutorial we will be looking at Visual Studio IDE (the easy way out!) to create the proxy class. Also, we will be using a Windows application to access the web service.
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